Holiday Shopping With Centro Motel

Have you finished you Christmas shopping yet? Yeah, it's okay. Neither have I. Not to worry, though. Calgary's first and greatest boutique motel is here for you. If there's one thing that Calgary is good for, it's shopping. If you're coming from points near the city, you'll definitely want to drive (which is where a Motel comes in), after all some of the best shopping in Alberta is just a short drive away.

 Merry Christmas from the Internet's current ruler. The Cat Named Tardar Sauce.

The Core

Downtown Calgary's solution to the intermittently horrible Alberta weather. The Core is a group of office buildings connected through +15 and underground walkways. If you're looking for some brand name high end fashion items this is the place to go.

Parking can be a bit of an adventure here. But if you head down on a weekend not only is it cheap, but there are Valets.

Chinook Centre

Chinook Centre is easier to drive into and out of than anything in downtown Calgary. They are missing some of the more high-end stores, but they make up for it by having more Tech stores and a movie theater.

The options for eating are better with Chinook as well. I mean, they have Sushi AND a Yogen Fruz.

Cross Iron Mills

Bigger. Better. Faster. Stronger. This is the Bionic Man of Calgary Malls. I guess, technically it is outside the city limits, but at the rate Calgary is growing that won't last more than another year or so. This place is massive though, so if you're going with a group I suggest the 'Divide and Conquer' shopping strategy.

While it is a little further to drive, it has pretty much everything If you only have time to go to one Shopping Centre, go to this one.

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village. The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

Winter Driving Tips

The Centro Motel is located, along with several other motels, near the Western edge of the city of Calgary right on the Trans-Canada Highway as it enters the city proper. Although, this is a prime location for a motel to be in, it does mean that at this time of year we get to see some truly horrific Winter Driving. In fact, it was the heavy snowfall we received yesterday and the awful, awful driving perpetrated by the citizens of this city that inspired me to write this article. All of you drivers out there, stay safe and don't forget to...

 

Get Winter Tires!

There's no excuses for this one. You can pick up a cheaper pair on websites like Kijiji, or eBay. Installation is inexpensive, and it can make all the difference. Waiting to get them isn't a good excuse either, as Fall is right next to Spring as the worst time of year for slippery roads. Remember, snow and ice is more slippery the closer to 0 Degrees Celsius it is, and most car accidents happen during periods of milder temperatures.

Avoid Cruise Control On Icy Patches!

More drivers should know about this one. There's always some rumour flying around that if your car hits an icy patch while on cruise control it will think you're going up a hill and begin to accelerate, launching your vehicle off the road. Happily, this isn't true at all. The real reasons you should avoid using cruise control in icy road conditions are much less dramatic.

One of your best defences when losing control on wet or icy pavement is to immediately take your foot off the gas. Since you either have to hit a button or tap the brakes to disengage cruise control, you lose some response time. Otherwise, the only reason to avoid it is to help keep you engaged in driving. Having the cruise control on may lull the driver into inattention.

Avoid Sudden Moves

In my opinion, Winter is the only season when you should take the speed limits as gospel. If conditions are bad , and there's a road sign indicating a low speed, it's probably good advice. Once, I was young and driving my car at the time (a 2-door coupe) on a snowy road in the mountains. I took a turn about 20kms faster than I should have, and the only reason I'm still around to type about it today is the time I put in at my AMA class purposely throwing the car into a skid and learning how to control it. Even then, it was a near thing. The moral of the story? Take it slow. Don't accelerate or brake suddenly, and for God's sake slow down BEFORE you take a turn.

Carry An Emergency Kit

According to Transport Canada (a Government Ministry I didn't know existed until I started researching this article) you should have the following items in your car kit.

Keep the following items in your trunk.

• shovel

• sand or kitty litter

• traction mats

• tow chain

• compass

• cloth or roll of paper towels

• warning light or road flares

• extra clothing and footwear

• emergency food pack

• booster cables

• matches and a "survival" candle in a deep can (to warm hands, heat a drink or use as an emergency light)

• fire extinguisher

• extra windshield washer fluid

• fuel line antifreeze

• reflective vest
  
  

Keep the following items inside your vehicle.

• road maps

• ice scraper and brush

• flashlight

• first aid kit

• blanket (special "survival" blankets are best)

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village. The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

Fast and Female at Canada Olympic Park

One of the most interesting neighbour we have here at Centro Motel is located just up the road on the way out of town. Canada Olympic Park is always up to something interesting. Whether flinging Municipal Government officials down the fastest zipline on the continent, letting your average Joe and Joette rocket down an icy tube at highway speeds, or just teaching people how to ski, you can always count on something interesting going on up there. Speaking of which, coming up at the end of this month, there's an event you should definitely take notice of.

Something you may have realized if you were paying attention during the last Olympics is that women tend to be vastly underrepresented in sports. In every sport from Hockey to Judo, the women's teams are smaller, have less funding, and are generally regarded as the “B” team when compared to the Men's divisons.

This segregation isn't caused or effected by any one thing, You can argue that Society is to blame, constantly programming young girls to shy away from physicality in favour of femininity, what with Cosmopolitan Magazine and so on. But, a big part of what keeps women's divisions small is the lack of support, and role models, for young girls in sports. If you ask any given Canadian-born professional Hockey player why they wanted to get into the game, and why they stuck with it, it's almost always the same two-part answer; “I wanted to be Wayne Gretzky”, and “the community, the friends I made”. Quick! Who's considered the female equivalent of Wayne Gretzky? Hint: If you don't know the answer, neither do any young girls.

Hoping to provide a solution to the two-part problem of involvement is an organization called Fast and Female. With their events, programs, promotions, and key note speakers, they are looking to build a female-centric community of support and celebration for young female athletes. Coming up on the weekend of the 29^th is their 3^rd Annual Sports Day in Canada.

“Fast and Female - a non profit organization dedicated to inspiring and motivating girls to stick to sports - is inviting ladies ages 8 to 99 years old for a morning of fitness and inspiration at Canada Olympic Park. Held in conjunction with the CBC Sports Day in Canada, the women-only Fast and Female event will feature sporting activities for ladies of all skill and abilities.”

All proceeds from the event will support Fast and Female's programs for 2013.

As the flyer would suggest, you don't necessarily have to be already involved in any sports to get something out of the day. Also, any sport will do. From Yoga, to fencing, to Ice Hockey and Boxing, come on down and meet some of your contemporaries!

The Centro Motel is Calgary’s first Boutique Motel. Located in the Montgomery neighbourhood, just south of Calgary’s Motel Village. The Centro offers stylish, trendy rooms at competitive prices. For more information on booking, rooms and rates, check out the home page, or Contact Us.

Things To Do In Downtown Calgary On A Chilly November Evening

Shoulder seasons are, in general, pretty terrible. It's not summer and it's not winter yet, either. It's too cold to spend time outside and there's not enough snow to go skiing yet. Yes, November is one month that kind of gets the short end of the stick as far as seasons go. There isn't even a large holiday in it, like Christmas or Thanksgiving, to distract everyone from how miserable the weather is. Especially for travellers staying in downtown Calgary, November is the pits. You'd wander around and find a likely restaurant or bar, but it's too cold out and you don't want to. So, here's a short list of some things you can do when you're stuck inside a hotel room in downtown Calgary on a chilly November's eve.

Join NetFlix

You should probably do this anyways. Now that you can watch it from any wireless capable device, there's the added bonus of being able to watch your favourite shows from anywhere where there's Internet, and with us the Internet is free.

I was originally going to write that you should consider renting a DVD, but no one really does that anymore, do they? You could also pay through the nose for some Pay-Per-View movie in your hotel room, but for the exact same $8 you could access a huge library of television and movies.

Get Into a Good Book

There used to be a really great book store in downtown Calgary (I miss you McNally Robinson), but these days the best one within a short walk from Nuvo Hotel Suites is actually a Chapters that's just two blocks south of us. Although, you will have to briefly leave your room, you can pick up a brand new good book to get into.

To The Pub!

You knew this was coming. Luckily for us, the surrounding area of downtown Calgary holds many, many pubs. The ones nearest us are Brewster, and the Blind Monk, however the Nuvo Hotel Suites is located just a few blocks north of 17^th Ave, also known as the Red Mile. Heading out for an evening drink there, especially after or during a Calgary Flames game, is a much more vibrant way to enjoy a chilly November evening.

Alberta's New Distracted Driving Law

Being a Boutique Motel, we here at Centro tend to have a lot of guests who drive in to get here. It is, after all, sort of the point of staying at a Motel, you are guaranteed of having somewhere you can park your car. However, there's a new law coming into effect here in Alberta that's going to make life a little more difficult for anyone driving in from out of province.

Have you ever used your cell-phone while driving? Obviously not for texting, people who try and drive while texting deserve a swift kick in the butt, but just a regular phone call? Well, starting on September 1^st, 2011 that can earn you a fairly hefty fine here in Alberta.

The new Law, Bill 16, doesn't stop there. Gone are the days when you can eat in our car worry-free, from next week on eating while driving also constitutes a violation of Bill 16. This makes me a little sad. After all, it kind of makes Drive-Thrus sort of pointless. I mean, if you;re going to have to stop and pull over to eat the food anyways, what's the point of using a Drive-Thru to get it?

So, just to recap, from now on in Alberta you cannot Eat, use your phone, or listen to headphones while driving or you'll get a $172.00 ticket. God help you if try doing all three things at once.